Prosodic Cues to Reported Speech

Anke Grutschus
Romanisches Seminar, Universität zu Köln

Prosodic cues are often used to signal different discourse functions, notably in the absence of syntactic or lexical cues. This is especially true regarding enunciative shifts like those occurring in sequences of reported (direct) speech: quotatives (e. g. he said) as well as shifts in personal deixis may be omitted or can at least remain ambiguous in spontaneous speech, so that hearers rely heavily on vocal changes in order to identify shifts of footing. Apart from helping hearers to identify the enunciative structure of utterances, prosodic marking of reported speech may also fulfil narrative or dramatic functions, thus rendering narrations more vivid in cases where the reporting speaker actually impersonates the quoted speaker’s voice.
On the basis of a small Spanish corpus combining two genres in which reported (direct) speech is frequently used – (evangelical) sermons and stand-up comedy – our presentation will address the following questions: Which prosodic cues seem to be particularly important when it comes to marking shifts of footing? Are there different degrees of prosodic marking, possibly resulting in different types of reported speech animation, with regular clusters of prosodic parameters? To what extent is prosodic marking particularly salient when syntactic or lexical cues are lacking? And finally, do prosodic cues systematically coincide with syntactic boundaries such as the one between the reporting clause and the reported clause?